D-
Las Vegas Raiders
Tuten should have been long gone. The Raiders pounced, and earned a D-.
by [email protected] ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 4 steals
· 1 reaches
You can lose a draft before you make a pick. The Raiders did it at the trade table, overpaying to chase players the board did not price nearly as high. It grades a D-, and the process earned it.
The Tuten pick alone nudges the whole weekend up a notch. The edge rusher spot stays a question, and it was the one they most needed an answer at. They are betting Ersery proves the room right and everyone else wrong.
Job largely done: cornerback settled and 6 of 8 of the wish list covered.
Bottom line, they will be counting on several picks to beat their grades.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick 6 they get a press-man option on the boundary. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
A straight-up fair deal on Tyler Booker at pick No. 33, value and slot in agreement. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
The board had cheaper options than Aireontae Ersery at Round 2, Pick 5, and it noticed. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
They let TreVeyon Henderson come to them and pounced at slot 67. The roster fit checks out.
Jaxson Dart slipping to the 68th pick is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
A slide stopped in the Round 3 slot, with Dylan Sampson worth more than the price. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
A reasonable price with a little left over, Kevin Winston Jr. in pick No. 107. Useful depth more than a marquee fix.
By-the-book stuff, Oronde Gadsden II at the Round 5 slot squarely in line with his ranking. It fills a real need, too.
They took Dont'e Thornton Jr. at par in pick 182, which is nothing to complain about. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
You do not let a running back like Bhayshul Tuten reach Round 6, Pick 36 and blink. They did not. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.